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The BBC will look to further cost cuts, growth initiatives and transformation to help it fund its operations and public duties amid financial and sector challenges and return it to a financial surplus after a deficit that will balloon in the new fiscal year, the U.K. public broadcaster said in its annual plan and annual report Thursday.

Led by Director General Tim Davie, the broadcaster in its annual report outlined priorities for the new fiscal year 2024/2025 starting in April. “Our financial plan includes a transformative approach to savings to enable delivery of our strategic ambitions,” it said. “This will require a number of difficult decisions over the course of the year, including one-off transformational costs. Ultimately savings will help to deliver reinvestment in our audience offering and set the BBC up to succeed as audience consumption patterns change.”

For the fiscal year, the license fee for U.K. taxpayers...

Alone, a psychological thriller, gained Netflix fame years after its release, reaching no. 3 with 3.6 million views. Despite a limited theater release and mixed audience reviews, Alone earned critical praise with a 91% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Alone was originally released during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The film Alone becomes a hit on Netflix several years after its release. The psychological horror thriller is about a recently-widowed woman who is kidnapped by a cold-blooded killer, escaping into the wilderness where she must battle the elements as the killer draws near. Alone’s cast includes Jules Wilcox, Marc Menchaca, Anthony Heald, and Jonathan Rosenthal. The movie is based on the 2011 Swedish film Försvunnen.

Related Is Alone Based On A True Story? The 2020 Thriller's Inspirations Explained The 2020 psychological thriller Alone revolves around a woman running from a man hunting her in the wilderness is the film inspired by real events?

Now, Alone has made it...

After record-breaking attendance of over 170,000 music fans over four days in 2023, Welcome To Rockville returns to Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida to kick off the festival season bigger and better than ever May 9-12, 2024. Festival producer Danny Wimmer Presents is excited to announce the addition of a 5th music stage and 50 additional bands, bringing the total music lineup to an impressive 150 bands for Welcome To Rockville 2024.

The initial music lineup for the 13th year of Welcome To Rockville is the festival’s most powerful collection of artists yet and features an array of talent not-to-be-missed including Foo Fighters, Mötley Crüe, Slipknot, Jelly Roll, Disturbed, Limp Bizkit, Queens of the Stone Age, Judas Priest, Greta Van Fleet, Evanescence, Falling In Reverse, A Day To Remember, Breaking Benjamin, Bad Omens, The Offspring, Mudvayne, Koe Wetzel, Stone Temple Pilots, Primus, Cypress Hill, Sum 41, a rare appearance by Mr. Bungle, and many others.

In my opinion, the two greatest directors to emerge from the nexus of international cinema in the 1990s were both Scandinavian. One of them, Lars von Trier, became quite famous, for reasons both good and bad. The other director I’m speaking of never got famous, and his movies, even during his brief heyday, didn’t become art-house sensations. Yet for a time, Sweden’s Lukas Moodysson burned with an intoxicating flame.

He made three films of astonishing organic craft and humanistic purity: “Show Me Love” (1998), a shockingly lyrical love story about two high-school girls who fall for each other in a small town that didn’t look very tolerantly upon them; “Together” (2000), an ensemble comedy set in a sharehome commune in Stockholm in 1975 that is one of the only films that totally gets the counterculture; and “Lilya 4-ever” (2002), a haunting tragedy about a wayward girl in the former Soviet...

Wolfgang Van Halen’s Mammoth Wvh recently performed on NBC’s Today show, and in a heartwarming moment, cameras captured his mom, actress Valerie Bertinelli, and fiancée, Andraia Allsop, cheering on the band from the sidelines.

Speaking with Heavy Consequence, Wolfgang said the Today show performance was “one of the most nerve-wracking things ever.”

“I hadn’t slept at all, because we were up so early,” he added. “So, it was just kind of one big dream. It was an insane opportunity, where you’re just kind of playing, and you turn to your right and Al Roker is sitting there watching. Very, very crazy. But yeah, my mom and and my fiancée have just been so wonderful. They’re definitely the people I rely on and lean on. Just having them there to support me was really special.”

During that Today appearance, Wolfgang mentioned that he was getting married in a matter of weeks,...

“The one thing I wanted to avoid was the sophomore slump,” says Wolfgang Van Halen — and if anything, his just-released second album as Mammoth Wvh, Mammoth II, is a major step up from his impressive 2021 debut. The choruses and riffs are both big enough to match his band name, and the album is full of heavy, pleasingly tricky instrumental interplay that’s all the more impressive when you recall that Van Halen once again played every note on every instrument himself. He’s also embracing a key part of his...

Metallica kicked off the North American leg of their 2023-2024 “M72 World Tour” on Friday (August 4th) at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band was joined on the bill by fellow metal legends Pantera and rising rockers Mammoth Wvh (led by Wolfgang Van Halen).

The tour (get tickets here) features Metallica performing two completely unique sets (no repeat songs) over two nights in each city, with different support acts each evening. They’ll be right back at MetLife on Sunday (August 6th), with Five Finger Death Punch and Ice Nine Kills opening.

The setup has the bands performing in the round, on a circular stage in the middle of the stadium, with some fans in the “Snakepit” (the center of the circle).

While there was a forecast for thunderstorms on Friday night, that never came to be, making for a comfortable summer evening in New Jersey.

Wolfgang Van Halen‘s Mammoth Wvh have shared the video for “I’m Alright,” the latest single from the upcoming Mammoth II full-length, out Friday (August 4th).

The five-minute track is a propulsive hard rocker highlighted by a strong vocal performance from Wolfgang. He shows off his soulful side here, extending notes and hitting some impressive melodic vibratos. And as we’ve come to expect from Wolfgang and his band, there’s plenty of surging guitars and stadium-ready chords.

“’I’m Alright’ is the single that is coinciding with the album release,” explained Wolfgang in a press release. “I think it’s really funny that the lyrics are quite angry but delivered through the lens of sort of a comfy rock song. If there ever was an anthem for myself about standing up for what I believe I should be doing — as opposed to what people expect — this is certainly that song.

BritBox has announced the cast for Murder Is Easy, an all-new adaptation of the Agatha Christie novel. Filming has now started on the project, and a first look image can be seen above. The two-part thriller comes from Mammoth Screen and Agatha Christie Limited for BBC One and iPlayer in collaboration with BritBox International. Siân Ejiwunmi-Le Berre wrote the script while Meenu Gaur is directing.

Per BritBox, the full cast includes David Jonsson as Fitzwilliam; Morfydd Clark as Bridget; Penelope Wilton as Miss Pinkerton; Sinead Matthews as Miss Waynflete; Tom Riley as Lord Whitfield; Douglas Henshall as Major Horton; Mathew Baynton as Dr. Thomas, Mark Bonnar as Reverend Humbleby; Nimra Bucha as Mrs. Humbleby; Tamzin Outhwaite as Mrs. Pierce; Jon Pointing as Rivers; and newcomer Phoebe Licorish as Rose.

In the adaptation, which is set in England in 1954, "Fitzwilliam (Jonsson) meets Miss Pinkerton (Wilton), who tells him that a killer...

Filming has begun and the cast has been revealed for Agatha Christie novel adaptation “Murder Is Easy.”

Based on Christie’s 1939 novel, the two-part thriller is adapted by Siân Ejiwunmi-Le Berre and directed by Meenu Gaur (“World on Fire”).

The cast includes David Jonsson, Morfydd Clark, Penelope Wilton (“Downton Abbey”), Sinead Matthews (“The Crown”), Tom Riley (“The Nevers”), Douglas Henshall (“Shetland”), Mathew Baynton (“Ghosts”), Mark Bonnar (“World on Fire”), Nimra Bucha (“Ms Marvel”), Tamzin Outhwaite (“The Tower”), Jon Pointing (“Big Boys”) and Phoebe Licorish in her screen debut.

The story is set in 1954 England. On a train to London, Fitzwilliam (Jonsson) meets Miss Pinkerton (Wilton), who tells him that a killer is on the loose in the sleepy English village of Wychwood under Ashe. The villagers believe the deaths are accidents, but Miss Pinkerton knows otherwise — and when she’s later found dead on her way to Scotland Yard, Fitzwilliam...

Industry and Rye Lane star David Jonsson, Lord of the Rings lead Morfydd Clark and Downton Abbey‘s Penelope Wilton are among the cast of BBC and Britbox International’s latest Agatha Christie adaptation, Murder is Easy.

Filming is now underway in Scotland, with Jonsson playing lead character Fitzwilliam. On a train in 1954 England, he meets Miss Pinkerton (Wilton), who tells him a killer is on the loose in the sleepy village of Wychwood under Ashe. Though the locals believes the deaths are accidents, Miss Pinkerton knows better and is soon found dead on her way to Scotland Yard. Fitzwilliams is convinced he has to find the killer before they strike again.

Clark will play Bridget, Sinead Matthews (Hullraisers, The Crown) is Miss Waynflete, Tom Riley (The Nevers, Ill Behaviour) is Lord Whitfield, Douglas Henshall (Shetland, In Plain Sight) plays Major Horton, Mathew Baynton (Ghosts, Wonka) portrays Dr Thomas, Mark Bonnar (World on Fire,...

Sf Studios and REinvent have dropped the first trailer for Lukas Moodysson’s comedy “Together 99,” the Swedish director’s sequel to his 2000 hit movie “Together.”

Sf Studios will release the film in Sweden on Oct. 13, while REinvent will represent it in international markets.

“Together 99” follows a group of very different people who lived in a Swedish community called Together in 1975. The story picks up 24 years later, in 1999, with Göran and Klasse who are the last two members of the community. Feeling a bit lonely, they start thinking of a reunion with old friends and Klasse sets off to surprise Göran on his birthday.

“Together 99” is produced by Lars Jönsson and Anna Carlsten at Memfis Film, in co-production with Film i Väst, Sf Studios and Zentropa Entertainments, with support from the Swedish Film Institute, Det Danske FilminsHtut and Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

A critical and commercial hit, “Together” played at...

David Mitchell is returning to the BBC for genre-bending detective comedy Ludwig, which features on a five-strong comedy slate alongside Hulu co-production Dinosaur and a show from The Duchess star Michelle de Swarte.

Unveiling his first major comedy slate at this afternoon’s BBC Comedy Festival in Cardiff, the corporation’s Comedy Director Jon Petrie said the shows reflect “the depth and range of our offerings which champion British creativity.”

The slate is led by Ludwig, Peep Show star Mitchell’s first BBC project since Upstart Crow, which follows the eponymous protagonist as he takes on the identity of his brother, Dci James Taylor, who has disappeared off the face of the earth. Mitchell’s Ludwig lives in quiet solitude, designing puzzles for a living under his nom-de-plume, and he struggles to adapt to being a twin who happens to be a successful Dci leading Cambridge’s busy inner-city major crimes team.

As passionate fans of “The Masked Singer,” Gold Derby’s editors would like to offer our condolences to the friends and family of the celebrities who’ve passed away through the years. Fox’s wild and wacky reality TV show tasks famous faces with dressing up in extravagant costumes and singing for audience votes. The regular panelists are Robin Thicke, Jenny McCarthy Wahlberg, Ken Jeong and Nicole Scherzinger, though special guest judges also pop up from time to time, including the late Leslie Jordan.

To honor the memories of the show’s fallen stars, tour our “The Masked Singer” deaths photo gallery above (or click here for direct access) that remembers all of the contestants we’ve lost.

See ‘The Masked Singer’: Most famous celebrities of all time

Jerry Springer as Beetle

February 13, 1944 – April 27, 2023 (age 79)

Though he initially rose to fame thanks to his self-titled daytime talk show, which...

Alter Bridge have extended their 2023 “Pawns & Kings” tour, adding a North American leg in August.

The band is bringing along Sevendust and Wolfgang Van Halen’s Mammoth Wvh for most of the run, with Long Island-based trio Mjt supporting select dates in place of Mammoth Wvh. The new leg kicks off August 1st in Buffalo, New York, and runs through August 31st in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

A Live Nation pre-sale begins Wednesday (April 26th) at 10 a.m. local time via Ticketmaster using the code Vinyl, with a general sale starting on Friday (April 28th). You can also look for deals or buy tickets to sold-out dates via StubHub, where your purchase is 100% guaranteed through StubHub’s Fan Protect program.

The August dates will follow Alter Bridge’s already completed early 2023 outing with Mammoth Wvh and an upcoming May jaunt with Sevendust, which concludes with Alter Bridge playing Welcome to Rockville in Daytona Beach,...

Liz Jensen’s bestselling 2009 novel “The Rapture” is to be adapted into a five-part drama starring Ruth Madeley, and produced by Mammoth Screen for BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

The writer is Bryony Kimmings (“Last Christmas”), with Rebecca Manley, and is directed by Chanya Button.

Recovering from a car crash which has left her paralysed, forensic psychologist Gabrielle Fox (Madeley) takes a job working in a maximum security facility for juvenile patients. Here she meets 16-year-old inmate Bethany Krall, who was found guilty of brutally murdering her mother, and tells Gabs that she has psychic powers. Is she a highly manipulative psychopath or is she telling the truth when she says she can foretell a natural disaster linked to climate catastrophe?

Madeley said: “I loved Liz Jensen’s novel and Bryony Kimmings’ scripts are brilliantly inventive and funny and scary. Gabs is such a rich and complex character, and I cannot wait to play her.

Wolfgang Van Halen’s Mammoth Wvh returns this summer with their sophomore album Mammoth 2, the first single for which was released Wednesday, “Another Celebration at the End of the World.”

“I knew that I wanted the new album to contain elements of what people heard on the debut, but also giving me a chance to branch out a bit,” Van Halen said in a statement.

“‘Another Celebration at the End of the World’ is definitely a song that showcases what people can expect from the new album. It is a...

The Mammoth Film Festival is set to open with Shia LeBeouf’s Padre Pio, Abel Ferrara’s historical drama that debuted at Venice.

Ferrara’s latest feature has LeBoeuf playing an Italian friar who rose to prominence at a time when fascist powers began to take over Italy. Padre Pio also stars Asia Argento, Marco Leonardi and Christina Chiriac, and director Ferrara will be at the northern California festival to do a post-film Q&a on March 2.

Mammoth will close with Bonded, which stars Diego Calva and is directed by Mohit Ramchandani. The thriller is inspired by a true story from the producers of Argentina 1985 and is executive produced by Yalitza Aparicio.

Mammoth, which is set to run from March 2 to 6 in Mammoth Lakes, California, has also added the horror thriller Night Shift, which stars Phoebe Tonkin, Lamorne Morris and Patrick Fischler and is directed and written by Benjamin and Paul China.

Agatha Christie’s “Murder is Easy” is set to be adapted into a two-part film by BBC One, iPlayer and BritBox International.

Set in the sleepy English village of Wychwood under Ashe in 1954, “Murder is Easy” tells the story of Luke Fitzwilliam who finds himself on the trail of a serial killer after meeting Miss Pinkerton on a train to London. She tells him about a series of deaths that have taken place in her village – locals think they are all accidental but Miss Pinkerton knows the truth. When she later turns up dead herself – while on the way to visit Scotland Yard – Fitzwilliam realizes he needs to find the killer before yet more bodies start piling up.

ITV Studios-owned Mammoth Screen (“The Serpent”) and Agatha Christie Limited (“And Then There Were None”) will produce the feature, which is set to go into production this summer.

Sian Ejiwunmi-Le Berre...

Now in its ninth season, Fox’s wild and wacky reality TV show “The Masked Singer” has seen over 100 celebrities “take it off” on the big stage. While some of the unmaskings set the water cooler on fire with how famous the contestant turned out to be, others — let’s be honest — had much of the audience whispering, “Who’s that?” In our gallery above, we rank “The Masked Singer’s” most famous celebrities of all time (click here for direct access). If you didn’t know any of these Top 16 personalities before the show aired, it’s safe to say you’ve been living under a rock your whole life.

“The Masked Singer” airs Wednesday nights on Fox at 8/7c. Host Nick Cannon emcees the show as famous faces hide inside outrageous costumes and perform for judges Robin Thicke, Jenny McCarthy, Ken Jeong and Nicole Scherzinger. Season 9 features a...

Follow-up to international hit from 2000 is set to film in Sweden in August.

Swedish director Lukas Moodysson is readying Together 99, a sequel to his 2000 international hit Together.

It will tell the story of a group of very different individuals who in 1975 lived in a commune called “Together”. Now it is 1999, and the collective has turned into a commune of just two people - Göran and Klasse. They decide to reconnect with their old friends. Gustaf Hammarsten will return in the role as Göran and Shanti Roney will play his friend Klasse. Further cast will be announced ahead of shooting in August.

Follow-up to international hit from 2000 is set to film in Sweden in August.

Swedish director Lukas Moodysson is readying a sequel to his international hit Together.

Titled Together 99 and produced by Memfis Film, the sequel takes place in 1999, 24 years after the first film.

Together 99 tells the story of a group of very different individuals who in 1975 lived in a commune called “Together”. Now it is 1999, and the collective has turned into the world’s smallest. The commune consists of only two people - Göran and Klasse. Feeling a bit lonely, the idea occurs of a reunion with their old friends.

Spoiler Alert: Do not read ahead if you have not watched Season 7, Episode 8, of “The Masked Singer,” “The Mask of Least Resistance – Round 3,” which aired April 27 on Fox.

So I guess we’re just gonna pretend that last week didn’t happen and just move on. But Wednesday night’s unmasked celebrity was a bit controversial in her own way: Kirstie Alley, who has generated her own kind of notorious headlines in recent years, was unmasked on this week’s episode as Baby Mammoth — a part of “Team Cuddly.”

For Baby Mammoth, one of the “Masked Singer” panelists got it right: Jenny McCarthy Wahlberg figured out it was Alley. Robin Thicke thought it was Kirsten Dunst, Nicole Scherzinger named Rachael Ray and Ken Jeong guessed Reese Witherspoon.

Alley as Baby Mammoth performed “The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s in His Kiss),” by Cher, on Wednesday’s show; later, she also sang “Me Too,...

While we still don’t know who is behind the Baby Mammoth costume on Fox’s “The Masked Singer,” we now know they can drop some bars.

In a clip from Wednesday’s new episode, exclusive to TheWrap, the contestant speaks with the judges after finishing a performance. While slightly out of breath, Baby Mammoth says, “I just wrote a song because I was so inspired by this show. And I’d like to sing it real fast.”

Naturally, everyone wants to hear the tune. That’s when the pink pre-historic creature starts chanting, “Baby Mammoth. Baby Mammoth. Baby Mammoth.”

It might be simple, but it sure is catchy. All of the judges, as well as the crowd, join in on the chant.

Host Nick Cannon then asks judge Robin Thicke to weigh in on the song.

“Robin, you’re a songwriter. Could that go all the way?” he asks.

The Royal Television Society Program Awards 2022 started with a slap on Wednesday evening, when nominee Aj Odudu ran up to the stage and pretended to strike host Tom Allen.

“Oh my God, Aj, oh my God – I’m the one who’s lost their hair, don’t hit me,” Allen, who is bald, quipped in the evidently pre-rehearsed skit. “I never put my wife anywhere near your mouth.”

Continuing the reference to the altercation between Will Smith and Chris Rock, which took place at the Oscars on Sunday night, Allen continued: “I’ve got to look my best for tomorrow, I’ve got an audition for ‘G.I. Jane 2.'”

Watching from the audience at the Jw Marriott Grosvenor House in Mayfair, where the awards were taking place, were a bevy of well-known faces including “The Batman” star Andy Serkis, “Supergirl’s” David Harewood and “Succession” actor Matthew Macfadyen. Macfayden was accompanying his wife Keeley Hawes,...

Wolfgang Van Halen’s Mammoth Wvh paid tribute to Taylor Hawkins with an emotional rendition of Foo Fighters’ “My Hero” during the band’s concert Saturday in Boston.

Introducing the song, a choked-up Van Halen told the crowd that the drummer, who died Friday at the age of 50, “was a hero to me, and a hero to all of us, and a hero to countless people, so we feel this is necessary.”

Mammoth Wvh then launched into the Foo Fighters’ 1997 classic, with Van Halen first helping out on drums before taking centerstage for “My Hero.

Mammoth Screen, the ITV Studios-owned indie behind The Serpent, World On Fire and Endeavour, has hired Samantha McMillon as managing director.

McMillon is joining from ITV studios where she is Commercial Director for its in-house UK drama labels. At Mammoth she will have a role across the development and production slates, helping foster new relationships domestically and internationally to support future growth.

McMillon will work alongside James Penny, who has been upped to CEO, Damien Timmer, who will become Chief Creative Officer and Jon Williams, Chief Operating Officer.

Separately, Mammoth has also hired Sheena Bucktowonsing as an Executive Producer, working across shows including World on Fire series two. She most recently was a producer on Doctor Who.

Upcoming shows for Mammoth include Noughts + Crosses series 2 for BBC One, new series Grime Kids for BBC Three, and an adaptation of Tom Jones for Masterpiece and ITV.

Emmy Award-winning Ted Lasso star Hannah Waddingham has joined the cast of upcoming ITV/Masterpiece drama Tom Jones.

Waddingham, who won the Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Comedy Series Emmy for her role as Rebecca Welton in the AppleTV+ comedy, will play the seductive and vengeful Lady Bellaston in the Mammoth Screen production.

She joins The Rising’s Solly McLeod, who is playing the lead of Tom, and You Don’t Know Me’s Sophie Wilde, who is playing heroine Sophia Western.

Also starring are James Fleet (Bridgerton), Alun Armstrong (Breeders) and Olivier Award-winner Shirley Henderson (Happy Valley).

Based on the 1749 book and written by Vanity Fair’s Gwyneth Hughes, the show follows the rollercoaster story of the title character’s journey to find real life.

Executive producers are James Gandhi, Gwyneth Hughes, Damien Timmer and Helen Ziegler for Mammoth Screen, Susanne Simpson and Rebecca Eaton for Masterpiece and Polly Hill for ITV.

Solly McLeod (The Rising) and Sophie Wilde (You Don’t Know Me) will lead the cast of Tom Jones, a four-part period TV series reimagining Henry Fielding’s classic novel The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling.

The project comes from Mammoth Screen (Poldark), PBS’ Masterpiece and ITV. Masterpiece was previously the U.S. home of ITV’s hit period show Downton Abbey.

First published in 1749, Tom Jones is the scandalous tale of a young man’s attempt to find a place in the world. It is widely regarded as a British classic and has been adapted previously, most notably in the 1963 feature film version starring Albert Finney as the titular character.

Gwyneth Hughes (Vanity Fair) wrote the series. Georgia Parris (Mari) is directing, Benjamin Greenacre is producing. Executive producers are James Gandhi, Gwyneth Hughes, Damien Timmer and Helen Ziegler for Mammoth Screen, Susanne Simpson and Rebecca Eaton for Masterpiece, and Polly Hill for ITV.

Sky Studios has appointed Preethi Mavahalli to the newly created role of creative director, drama, reporting into chief content officer Jane Millichip. She will join in Jan. 22.

Mavahalli will have a remit to develop and produce a slate of original drama from Sky Studios in the U.K. Her team will include executive producers Kara Manley, Victoria Wharton, Serena Thompson and Beverly Brooker, and she will work alongside director of commissioning for drama, Gabriel Silver.

Mavahalli will join from indie Mammoth Screen, where she is currently director of drama. At Mammoth, Mavahalli developed and executive produced several hit series including “The Serpent,” “Noughts + Crosses,” and “The War of the Worlds.” Prior to joining Mammoth in 2011, she worked at Film4 and Film London.

Mavahalli said: “I have been watching Sky Original drama go from strength to strength in recent years, constantly raising the bar with ambitious and ground-breaking series. With the launch of Sky Studios,...

Wolfgang Van Halen is set to launch a new SiriusXM show, Top of the Pack, which will honor some of the biggest acts in classic rock.

The show is set to debut June 11th at 5 p.m. Et on Sirius Xm’s Classic Rewind on channel 25, as well as on the Sxm App. New episodes will air monthly.

The first episode of Top of the Pack finds Van Halen marking the 30th anniversary of Van Halen’s 1991 album, For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, while also sharing music by Guns N’ Roses,...

Ahead of the arrival of Wolfgang Van Halen’s debut LP as Mammoth Wvh, the band has dropped the latest preview from the album, “Mammoth.”

According to Van Halen, the new single “most encompasses the overall vibe of the debut album,” with the track powered by driving guitars and Wolfgang’s inspirational lyrics.

“Hey you, anything is possible/You’re not the only one,” Van Halen sings on “Mammoth.” “Yeah, let ‘em think you’re unremarkable and prove them wrong.” The single was paired with a retro lyric video with...

The BBC’s streaming service, iPlayer, enjoyed a record start to the year after series including Netflix co-production The Serpent and Line of Duty propelled it to 1.7 billion streams in the first three months of 2021.

Viewing to iPlayer was up 22% year-on-year in Q1 as Brits flocked to the streaming service during lockdown in the UK. Furthermore, the BBC said January was a record month, with iPlayer recording 652 million streams.

The first episode of Mammoth Screen-produced The Serpent was iPlayer’s most-watched show in Q1 after it racked up 5.9M streams. It was followed by the first installment in Season 6 of police corruption drama Line of Duty, which was viewed 3.6M times.

Dan McGolpin, director of BBC iPlayer and channels, said: “BBC iPlayer is getting more viewing than ever in 2021 thanks to new must-watch series like The Serpent and Bloodlands, returning big hitters like Line of Duty and RuPaul’s Drag Race UK...

Exclusive: Homeland writer and executive producer Patrick Harbinson is to adapt Kate London’s Metropolitan Police novel Post Mortem into a three-part ITV series, which will be housed at Harbinson’s new UK-based production firm and Mammoth Screen.

The drama will be titled The Tower, in a nod to the novel’s thrilling opening sequence in which a veteran beat cop and teenage girl fall to their deaths from a tower block in south-east London, leaving a five-year-old boy and rookie police officer Lizzie Griffiths on the roof, only for them to go missing.

Detective Sergeant Sarah Collins is drafted in to investigate, working to find Lizzie before she comes to serious harm, but also to uncover the truth behind the grisly tower block deaths. Collins and Griffiths later become the central characters in three books written by former Met officer London.

The Tower will be produced by Harbinson’s...

Tahar Rahim stars as “Asia’s most notorious killer” Charles Sobhraj in a new trailer for the upcoming Netflix series “The Serpent,” released on Thursday.

Inspired by real events, the eight-episode series tells the story of Sobhraj, a serial conman who posed as a gem dealer and travelled across Southeast Asian in the 1970s with his girlfriend Marie-Andrée Leclerc (played in the series by Jenna Coleman), carrying out a spree of crimes on the so-called “Hippie Trail.” Together the duo became the chief suspects in a series of murders of young Western travelers.

The limited series also stars Billy Howle as Dutch diplomat Herman Knippenberg; Ellie Bamber as Herman’s wife Angela Knippenberg; Amesh Edireweera as Ajay Chowdhury; and Tim McInnerny as Paul Siemons.

A co-production between BBC One and Netflix, “The Serpent” is set to debut on Netflix on April 2.

Richard Warlow and Toby Finlay are writers on the series,...

Exclusive: Mammoth Screen, the British producer behind series including The Serpent and Poldark, is developing a television drama based on the 18th Century slave uprising in Haiti.

The story will be told through the eyes of Toussaint Louverture — who helped turn the tide against slavery internationally through his actions in Haiti — after Mammoth optioned Sudhir Hazareesingh’s biography Black Spartacus: The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture.

The Baillie Gifford Prize longlisted book is a comprehensive look at the life of Louverture, a former slave, who became the leader of the colony’s black population, the commander of its republican army, and eventually its governor until he was seized by Napoléon Bonaparte’s invading army in 1802.

Hazareesingh describes Louverture as a warrior, philosopher, nation-builder, and founding father of Haiti, characterizing him in the book as the “world’s first black superhero.” Hazareesingh’s biography was hailed as “a tour de force” by The Guardian.

Back in 2013 — fresh from playing bass on what would turn out to be one of Van Halen’s final tours — Wolfgang Van Halen turned his attention to his own music, demoing a song he called “Mammoth,” a nod to one of the early names of his father’s band. “It was the first time I felt like, ‘Yeah, I’m ready to do this,'” Van Halen recalls.

Seven years later, that song is finally coming out on the self-titled debut from Mammoth Wvh, his one-man-band. It drops on June 11th.

The BBC is planning the latest reimagining of Evelyn Waugh’s classic novel Brideshead Revisited, with Parade’s End producer Mammoth Screen attaching Call Me By Your Name helmer Luca Guadagnino to write and direct.

Deadline has heard that a deal for the miniseries is close to being finalized at the BBC and Mammoth will co-produce with Moonage Pictures, which is currently making another ambitious period BBC drama in the shape of Lily James starrer The Pursuit Of Love.

BBC drama controller Piers Wenger has been speaking to Guadagnino about an adaptation for two years and has flown to Italy to discuss the project with the writer/director. Separately, Guadagnino’s Sky/HBO series We Are Who We Are has also been picked up by BBC Three in the UK.

The Daily Mail reported that HBO and a stellar cast — including Ralph Fiennes, Cate Blanchett and Andrew Garfield — have signed...

“Falling” will be the opening film of the 28th edition of the EnergaCamerimage Intl. Film Festival, which focuses on the art of cinematography. The film’s director Viggo Mortensen and cinematographer Marcel Zyskind will attend the opening, which takes place on Nov. 14 in Toruń, Poland.

The film, which will compete for Camerimage’s Golden Frog, centers on John, who lives with his partner, Eric, and their daughter, Mónica, in California, far from the traditional rural life he left behind years ago. John’s father, Willis, a headstrong man from a bygone era, lives alone on the isolated farm where John grew up. Willis’s mind is declining, so John brings him West, hoping that he and his sister, Sarah, can help their father find a home closer to them. Their best intentions ultimately run up against Willis’s angry refusal to change his way of life in any way.

The film stars Mortensen,...

ITV has renegotiated its deal with Mammoth Screen, the British drama producer behind an upcoming BBC adaptation of Malorie Blackman’s Noughts + Crosses and BBC/Netflix series The Serpent.

ITV CEO Carolyn McCall revealed the renewal on a press call for the company’s annual results, which showed that revenue at production arm ITV Studios outstripped advertising turnover for the first time in ITV’s history.

The boom in scripted content has been a big part of this growth and Mammoth is among ITV’s most prolific scripted producers, having made shows including Poldark, The Pale Horse for Amazon and the BBC, and The War Of The Worlds, which was recently picked up by AMC.

ITV has had a long relationship with Mammoth. It took a 25% stake in the company, which is run by Damien Timmer, when it first launched in 2007. Eight years later, ITV fully-acquired Mammoth, although the financial details were not disclosed.

British broadcaster ITV’s total revenue increased 3% in 2019 to £3.8B ($4.9B) after the company’s production arm ITV Studios performed ahead of expectations.

The studio, which makes hits including Love Island and Hell’s Kitchen, increased its revenue by 9% year-on-year to £1.9B in the 12 months to December 2019. This was ahead of forecasted growth of 5% and it outstripped advertising revenue for the first time in ITV’s history.

ITV advertising revenue — once its most important source of income — was down 1.5% to nearly £1.8B, according to the annual earnings, which showed a 10% drop in adjusted Ebita to £729M. Earnings per share stood at 13.9p, which was also down 10% on 15.4p in 2018.

ITV CEO Carolyn McCall said earnings were hit by investments in technology, data and streaming, including BritBox, which launched in the UK last year and has hit 1M subscribers in the U.S. She said earnings would have been “broadly flat” had...

It would be difficult to delve into something more subjective than this. And to be clear, the songs themselves won’t be judged. With lengthy soundtracks at hand in just two McU films alone, there are far too many classic hits to ignore. So, instead, the songs will be ranked by how memorable the corresponding scenes are. Which is subjective yet again, to be sure, but some moments in this mammoth saga are undeniably enduring.

Related: Ranking Every Marvel Cinematic Universe Movie Poster

Film scores are essentially the most popular classical music being composed today, and they contribute plenty. But they’re also tailor-made for a movie. A great soundtrack choice can make or break crucial scenes, and reach beyond pop culture for everyone to enjoy.

AMC’s ad-free service AMC Premiere has acquired BBC One’s Hg Wells adaptation The War Of The Worlds, toplined by Rafe Spall, Eleanor Tomlinson and Robert Carlyle.

The three-part drama was made by Mammoth Screen and the indie’s parent company ITV Studios secured the deal with AMC as part of a raft of sales announced at the UK Screenings on Tuesday.

The War Of The Worlds is set in Edwardian England and follows George, played by Spall, and his partner Amy, played by Tomlinson, as they attempt to start a life together against the escalating terror of an alien invasion.

Executive produced by Damien Timmer, Preethi Mavahalli, Peter Harness, Craig Viveiros and Tommy Bulfin, the AMC sale means the drama is now available in 221 territories worldwide.

ITV Studios also inked international deals for two other Mammoth Screen dramas. Noughts + Crosses, based on Malorie Blackman’s young adult novel series,...

Hugh Laurie is working on a small-screen Agatha Christie adaptation, Variety has learned. The star of “The Night Manager” and “House” is developing a script, but which of the Queen of Crime’s books he is adapting is being kept strictly under wraps.

The project is through ITV-owned producer Mammoth Screen and is being developed for the BBC. Mammoth has made several successful Christie adaptations for the BBC, which Amazon has taken for the U.S. The latest coming down the pike is “The Pale Horse,” which was adapted by BAFTA-nominated Sarah Phelps, who won acclaim for her earlier TV version of the Christie classic “And Then There Were None.” Endeavor Content has sold those adaptations .

Laurie, who appeared in the P.G. Wodehouse adaptation “Jeeves and Wooster,” has not been confirmed to star. On screen, he parodied one of Christie’s most famous characters, Hercule Poirot, in the Spice Girls film “Spice World.

Young Justice's midseason finale is also its first bad episode of the season.

This Young Justice: Outsiders review contains spoilers.

Young Justice Outsiders Episode 13

If "Nightmare Monkeys" is a sign of what the Young Justice team can do freed from their constraints of a network and a regular tv schedule, "True Heroes" is what happens when they forget that they're unchained. "True Heroes" is an hour to 90 minutes of show jammed into a 22 minute television episode, a failure of storytelling and imagination that represents the first real turd of an otherwise spectacular return to the world.

Young Justice has never had a problem jamming a ton of stuff into a 20ish minute show. But when they do try and pack it in, they're usually more elegant about it, relying on subtlety and character to drive the central plot forward. That doesn't happen in the midseason finale: it's discarded for rote sequencing and infodumps,...

Through a new partnership with Marvel Entertainment, Mammoth Media’s storytelling app Yarn will offer dozens of new adventures featuring Marvel superheroes such as Spider-Man, Black Panther, Captain America, Iron Man, the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy.

The first batch of Marvel stories will be available today on Yarn, which reaches millions of primarily young users with Mammoth’s new-tech storytelling approach, which the company frames as “interactive multimedia micro-entertainment.”

The upshot of that terminology: Marvel fans with Yarn will get the consumer experience of engaging their favorite Marvel characters from film and television through their mobile device with phone texts and an interactive narrative. That narrative is rooted in the illusion that the Yarn user is personally interacting with the heroes.

Yarn has become a dominant destination in widening field of mobile storytelling, with more than 100 million stories read to date. Yarn is popular among Millennials (18-...

HBO Europe has greenlit “Patria,” its first original series out of Spain, to be written and produced by Aitor Gabilondo (“El Príncipe”) and directed by award-winning helmers Pablo Trapero and Félix Viscarret (“Under the Stars”).

The eight-part series adapts author Fernando Aramburu’s 2016 novel of the same name, one of the most acclaimed of recent Spanish bestsellers. Variety reported on the development of the project last year.

Trapero, a leading light of New Argentine Cinema who won a best director plaudit in Venice for “The Clan” in 2016, will serve as lead director. Trapero has made movies that deal with weighty social and political issues but appeal far beyond art-house audiences, such as Cannes competition contender “Lion’s Den” and Ricardo Darin-starrer “Carancho.” Viscarret, a Goya award winner who helmed the Caribbean noir series “Four Seasons in Havana” for Tornasol, will direct some of “Patria’s” episodes.

The 646-page novel looks...

Swedish director Lukas Moodysson's filmography has had a spotty history of even being seen in the United States. His earlier works Show Me Love and Together managed to receive distribution here, but some of his more serious films (like the brutal sex-trafficking drama Lilya 4-ever and A Hole In My Heart) never were even properly released here. In 2009, he made his English-language debut with a film called Mammoth that IFC released stateside and then he fell off the radar for a few years.  

He's finally returned to the big screen with We Are the Best!, a lighthearted adaptation of the graphic novel Never Goodnight, written by his wife Coco Moodysson. Set in 1982 Stockholm, we're introduced to Bobo (Mira Barkhammar) and Klara (Mira Grosin), two 13-year-old best friends who don't really fit in socially at school. They're tomboyish and seem to live in their own little world, mostly happy to...

In 1998, a young Swedish director named Lukas Moodysson delivered what might be the best coming-of-age film of the past couple of decades with the provocatively titled Fucking Amal (released in the U.S. as Show Me Love). It was a tender, vérité-influenced portrait of two young girls — one an outcast, the other a popular girl — falling in love, accompanied by a spot-on pop soundtrack that seemed to be its own character in the film. Moodysson followed that with the similarly impressive Together, a funny, sharply observed look at the travails of a lefty commune in the 1970s. After those two breakthrough films, Moodysson became a major international figure, with films like Lilya-4-Ever (a devastating look at a young Russian girl's descent into the underworld) and Mammoth, a we're-all-connected drama starring Gael García Bernal and Michelle Williams. Now Moodysson has returned to the world of the coming-of-age film with...

While we don't have a full review up just yet, Lukas Moodysson's "We Are The Best!" made a strong enough impression on us on the festival circuit, that it made the honorable mentions of our list of The 21 Best Films Of 2014 We've Already Seen. While the filmmaker is perhaps best known for his grittier fare such as “Lilja 4-ever," “Together," and “Mammoth," for his latest he turns in a different direction. Set in early-1980s Stockholm, and starring Mira Barkhammar, Mira Grosin and Liv LeMoyne, the story follows three teenage girls who form a punk rock group and let their new ethos spread into every aspect of their education, friendships, and family lives. Sounds like a unique take on the coming-of-age tale, and it's based on the actual experiences of Moodysson's wife, Coco Moodysoon, whose graphic novel “Never Goodnight," was adapted for the film. "We Are The Best!" plays...